Job design mindset need to change

[Colt47]

What happened in this game is that they went to a straight pattern mini-game about pumping numbers and put more of the distinctiveness into the fights. So effectively, people aren't so much playing different jobs as they are different cosmetic options for a role. The game is very much been gutted of tactical choices and that is why sleep and other status ailments have been moved into obscurity.

In order to have jobs be distinct, there has to be tactical roles each job fills that makes them distinct and the game has to support the use of those tactics. Things like out of combat healing, crowd control, magic support and frontliner would need to make a comeback, and they'd have to completely rethink how the move sets are designed. You'd get more meaningful actions in that kind of a system, but the trade off is that you'd also see "big numbers" kind of play fade into obscurity.

I'm going to be the first to admit that I do want to have those tactical choices in a more up-to-date package than FFXI. The new raid series made me remember what good tactical play felt like and they could have had it in FFXIV if the initial attempt wasn't such a disaster in 1.0 from focusing too much on the graphics engine. As far as how successful that approach would have been compared to this one, I'd say the current direction is the one that would give the most money. It's similar to how PF2e vs DnD 5e pans out: The more decisions someone can make the more invested a player likely will be. On the flip side, that same complexity in decisions is what repels many people as they run into decision paralysis.